Iranian Elections

Helene Cooper has a good piece in The New York Times about the Obama administration’s evolving stance on Iran, but it leaves out something that’s going to be an increasingly relevant concern if the regime weathers the opposition’s challenge to its authority: when negotiations with Iran can or ought to proceed. Cooper does a good [...]

This dropped in the last hour and I’ve obtained the full text. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has changed Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Ind.) resolution on Iran significantly, chopping out the more provocative preambles that David Weigel reported on. It now reads:
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace [...]

Reuters is reporting that state-run Iranian media claim that seven people have been killed in demonstrations and protests since Friday’s election. But my understanding is that this press release from a consortium of Iranian human rights activists claims to have confirmed 32 deaths due to regime crackdowns on protests taking place June 14 and 15. [...]

As reports of political violence in Iran intensified after Friday’s fiercely disputed election, the Obama administration insisted that it would not interfere with the struggle for power between regime-backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the thousands of demonstrators who contend the election was stolen.